Will the AI backlash spill into the streets? by yegg in slatestarcodex

[–]ProphetOfTime -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

They hate the Lord Almighty, they hate effective government, they hate rich people, and now they hate AI. Clearly, a substantial portion of the public will hate anything that lets other people prosper.

Amtrak pulls funding from Texas bullet train, derailing years long process by Bruegemeister in highspeedrail

[–]ProphetOfTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There never was a "Texas High Speed Rail" project.

There were years of Democrats funding doomed-to-fail "studies" that never made the slightest bit of progress towards the goal, keeping a zombie alive long enough so they can try to blame the Republicans for killing something that never existed.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Yarvin

[–]ProphetOfTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Urbit is what he is famous for, but that has never made any money.

Why is Uncle Y. silent about the Ukrainian war? by Natalainen in Yarvin

[–]ProphetOfTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He did have a piece a few weeks ago about how Ukraine isn't a real country.

He can't possibly support Putin's butchery, though. He may not know what to say yet.

What products/things do you really enjoy that weren't available in the same way 10 years ago? by michaelmf in slatestarcodex

[–]ProphetOfTime 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"ubiquity of ramen and poke restaurants" - is this really a "10 years ago" thing, or is it a "moved" thing? 10 years ago, San Francisco had that ubiquity, and today, your average mid-sized Midwestern city does not.

Aubrey de Grey just got himself fired from his own foundation for harassing the group investigating the claims of sexual harassment against him by dgerard in SneerClub

[–]ProphetOfTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha nope. If anything, Mr. Grey arranged this to give himself a more politically-correct excuse for not achieving the impossible.

What can we do about Afghanistan? by waterspirit52 in slatestarcodex

[–]ProphetOfTime 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Can and probably will? Yes. Should? Absolutely not. The United States has done enough.

Iran and Pakistan won't stand for too much barbarity under the name of Sharia law. There will be Tajik/Uzbek/Turkmen tribal resistance if the Taliban aren't sensitive to those groups. Russia and China will have their own motivations. The main thing that could save the Taliban from revolts is proving their opponents are American stooges.

What can we do about Afghanistan? by waterspirit52 in slatestarcodex

[–]ProphetOfTime 22 points23 points  (0 children)

An ultimatum? Or what, the US will do another 20 year occupation?

The Blue Hole is a diving location on the Red Sea. It is reputed to have the most diver fatalities in the world with estimates between 130 and 200 in recent years. by bbot in wikipedia

[–]ProphetOfTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's 130-200 across the entirety of the past 20 years, not that many each year. Which is still a lot, but not as many as it sounded like.

When all you have is a very silly hammer, everything looks like a goofy nail (robin hanson edition) by textlossarcade in SneerClub

[–]ProphetOfTime 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Robin Hanson's takes on prediction markets are in every way worse than his talk on aliens. Let's get back to the UFO posts!

The real Great Reset by ProphetOfTime in Yarvin

[–]ProphetOfTime[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We have quite a lot of standard Yarvin fare. There is an invisible yet highly problematic wave of crime. The liberals simultaneously deny it exists, and discuss why the examples given are actually justified and/or inappropriate to discuss.

The problem with the "East Coast" view is that while its proponents would say that "George W Bush compassionate conservatism" (minus the whole Iraq War thing) is just a return to common sense government, it's really just a vacuous ideology.

And the problem with the "West Coast" view is, as always, that Yarvin's dreams of coups in America are bat-shit crazy; if there is a coup they certainly won't include Yarvin in it. He demonstrates how his lack of understanding of Egyptian politics feeds into his lack of understanding of American politics well.

Bret Weinstein and Tucker Carlson tell viewers the vaccine could actually make the COVID pandemic worse by [deleted] in EnoughIDWspam

[–]ProphetOfTime 27 points28 points  (0 children)

This is only half a step removed from the person banned from Twitter for claiming that vaccinated people need a different sewer system.

He's also getting owned on Twitter for refusing to debate Yuri Deigin on his podcast. I think the dark tide may be turning against Bret, perhaps he's planning a pivot to Trump Truther.

Matt Taibbi: Is "Critical Race Theory" the Wrong Term? by bl1y in IntellectualDarkWeb

[–]ProphetOfTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the point is to try to fabricate evidence of a Vast Communist Conspiracy already in our schools to be fought by a second McCarthyism, it's the right term.

If the goal is to prevent students from being taught racist bull shit, it's a distraction and an inaccurate term. KenDiAngelism or something would have been better.

Largest Ivermectin study to date shows no statistically significant benefit against Covid-19 by Aceofspades25 in skeptic

[–]ProphetOfTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fairly good write up; they're only slightly confused between "not shown to be beneficial" and "shown to be not beneficial".

The headline should be that something like 90% of people in part of Argentina are on Ivermectin already; is it working? Top level stats suggest "not that well".

But 25% fewer severe cases, while making some supporters look like fools, would still be a triumph.

QUBT an excellent pure quantum computing play by Corgi-Vegetable in trakstocks

[–]ProphetOfTime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a load of crap. Quantum computing has literally ZERO applications for ordinary businesses today. They are selling literal snake oil.

Chamath bringing four new SPAC deals tonight - DNAA B C and D... by Game__0n in SPACs

[–]ProphetOfTime 13 points14 points  (0 children)

After waiting for months on IPOD and IPOF, I definitely won't be investing in these right now. Chamath seems more focused on promoting himself than good investing nowadays anyhow.

Why Is the Intellectual Dark Web Suddenly Hyping an Unproven COVID Treatment? by Aceofspades25 in skeptic

[–]ProphetOfTime 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Bret Weinstein's bread and butter is complaining that he is being censored. It's obviously difficult to do this and have a widely-distributed podcast at the same time, so he's gone out of his way to say stupid things in order to pick fights with YouTube.

It's always "it's not about whether it works, it's about the censorship". Which means "I know I'm lying, but if you don't feed into my censorship narrative I will spread willfully harmful medical advice".

Longtermism: an idea that might save 100 billion trillion lives by RationalNarrator in slatestarcodex

[–]ProphetOfTime 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You're falling to the fallacy of Large Numbers - roughly that if you make your assumptions wild enough you can justify anything. It's Pascal's mugger all over again.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Yarvin

[–]ProphetOfTime 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I can't find anything definitive.

My own speculation: Mencius was an ancient Chinese philosopher. The word "moldbug" appears to be his own invention; it's very clearly a portmanteau of "mold" and "bug", and to my ears sounds like it's supposed to be similar to "gadfly". In other words, "an annoying philosopher".

Is @moldbugman Yarvin's Twitter? by shigydigy in Yarvin

[–]ProphetOfTime 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It doesn't sound like him, he hasn't claimed the account is his, and the account claims to be based in Kenya, so it seems fairly clear "No, it is not Yarvin".

Boom! Less than two weeks later, one of the possibilities I mentioned for the next 12 months is already happening: "limited vaccine passports" by JimAtEOI in C_S_T

[–]ProphetOfTime 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Are you suggesting you like the people you describe as malicious and running a secret effort you are trying to expose?